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PDF (Thesis Document) MUM AND ME: A COMPARATIVE PHONOLOGICAL STUDY OF MATERNAL NURSERY TERMS AND FIRST PERSON OBJECT DESIGNATORS by Christopher David Ridley A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment for the requirements for the degree of MA by research at the University of Central Lancashire December 2018 STUDENT DECLARATION FORM Type of Award MA by Research School Humanities and Social Sciences 1. Concurrent registration for two or more academic awards I declare that while registered as a candidate for the research degree, I have not been a registered candidate or enrolled student for another award of the University or other academic or professional institution 2. Material submitted for another award I declare that no material contained in the thesis has been used in any other submission for an academic award and is solely my own work 3. Collaboration Where a candidate’s research programme is part of a collaborative project, the thesis must indicate in addition clearly the candidate’s individual contribution and the extent of the collaboration. Please state below: _ 4. Use of a Proof-reader No proof-reading service was used in the compilation of this thesis. Signature of Candidate Print name: Christopher David Ridley ABSTRACT It has been observed that there is a prevalence of nasal sounds for the maternal kin term across many languages. This was evidenced by Murdock (1959). There have been some speculative attempts to explain this phenomenon. These range from speculation that nasal sounds may be the easiest for babies to produce when suckling to theories that all languages derive from a common root. In classic Saussurian linguistics it is deemed that the relationship between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary (Bally & Sechehaye, 1916). However, research by Blasi et al (2016) indicates that some phonemes correlate with certain basic vocabulary. This study examines whether a particular manner of articulation may by invoked by a basic meaning. It looks at the prevalence of nasal sounds across unrelated languages used for the maternal kin term and examines whether there is a statistical correlation between these and the use of nasal terms for first person object designators. This study demonstrates that such a relationship exists. This relationship is statistically significant. The implication is that there is a deep meaning that can be ascribed to the nasal phenomenon that allowed for it to move from denoting the care giver to the first person. This may, to some extent, explain how languages evolved. The literature on language evolution discusses the process of evolution from primate sounds, through phonemes, syllables to words and grammar (Corballis, 2009). It may be that the evolution of phoneme sounds from one meaning to another were part of this process. Nine languages were chosen for examination. Due to various practical reasons only seven were usable as statistical items. The analysis consisted of probability calculations to ascertain the likelihood of certain sounds occurring. Languages that had a nasally dominant “mum” term were more likely than would be expected by random occurrence to also have a nasally dominant “me” term. CONTENTS 1 Introduction 1 2 Aims, Scope and terminology 3 3 Analysis of Relevant Literature 6 4 Methodology 15 4.1 Problems with Data Collection 19 5 The Data 22 5.1 English 24 5.2 Hungarian 26 5.3 Turkish 28 5.4 Chinese 30 5.5 Japanese 32 5.6 Swahili 34 5.7 Arabic 35 5.8 Telugu 38 5.9 Tagalog 39 6 Data Analysis 41 7 Summary and Discussion 60 References 74 Appendices 1 – 5 (Each appendix has its own pagination) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my wife, Ildi, and my two dogs, Bertie and Suba, for their support throughout this enterprise. I would also like to thank my supervisors, Dr Lee and Bürkle for their help and advice. LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1 (Languages Selected) 17 Table 6.1 (Distribution of Consonants for “Mum” and “Me”) 43 Table 6.2 (Frequency of nasal consonants compared to frequency of non-nasal consonants) 45/6 Table 6.3 (Binary Distribution of Nasality) 52 Table 6.4 (Probability of Nasal Distribution) 53 Table 6.5 (Probability of Distributions Across Languages) 55 Table 6.6 (Ratio of Nasal to Total Number of Consonants) 58 1 INTRODUCTION This thesis looks at a particular issue of comparative phonology. It explores the phenomenon of the prevalence of nasal consonants being associated with the maternal nursery term, this was first evidenced by Murdock (1959), and whether this can be statistically associated with nasal consonants for first person designators. Classic Saussurian linguistics maintains that there is an arbitrary relationship between the signifier and the signified (Bally & Sechehaye, 1916). However, this position does not allow for the prevalence of nasal sounds that Murdock found. In addition, Bancel et al (2015) also found a preponderance of maternal nursery terms using nasal phonemes. In terms of the evolution of language Corballis (2009) put forward the notion that language could have evolved over a long period of time through stages from primate sounds. These originated in our hominid ancestors but evolution of the larynx allows homo sapiens sapiens greater control over the speech organs. In Corballis’s view there must have been an evolutionary process that allowed primate sounds to go through several stages to become modern languages. The move from the expression of primal emotions such as fear being evoked by a scream to particular phonemes forming syllables was a key phase of language development. A stage of this was particular phonemes being selected to be used in syllables which conveyed a meaning. Work by Blasi et al (2016), Cuskley & Kirby (2013), Köhler (1929, 1947) and Ramachandran & Hubbard (2001) indicates that certain concepts may be indicated by certain sounds and these symbolic representations extend across languages. This raises the notion of cross modality in that a sound may evoke a deep meaning below the level of the word. The research question is that there may be a connection between the sound an infant makes when suckling and the sound the infant may then make to invoke the mother. This is because the infant associates the mother figure with food. By extension this concept may move from food to mother to “me”. The infant may then associate the same sound with themselves. If this is the case then we might 1 expect that, for any given language, there should be a statistical correlation between the sound used in the maternal nursery kin term and the sounds used to refer back to oneself. Therefore, the testable hypothesis is that there is a positive correlation between the use of a nasal phoneme in a language in the nursery maternal kin term and in the first person object designator. This study aims to see if a part of the process can be explained by particular phonemes, in some instances, carrying a deep meaning. We will look to see if there is a statistical correlation between languages that are nasally dominant for the maternal nursery term and phonemes used for the first person object designator. The study finds that languages that are nasally dominant in the maternal nursery term are also nasally dominant for the first person object designator. This relationship is statistically significant. The implication is that nasality of a phoneme may carry notions are care giving which may they extend to the notion of self. 2 2 AIMS, SCOPE AND TERMINOLOGY This study aims to establish if there are statistically significant correlations between the use of nasal phonemes for maternal kin terms and for first person object designators across language family boundaries. In other words, is there a higher frequency of nasal phonemes used in the above terms than would be expected by chance? It is first necessary to define some of the terms used. The maternal kin term is the informal mode of address used by young children for their mother. This is the vocative term such as the British English “mum” /mʊm/1. It is important to differentiate between the vocative term and the referential term. An example of referential use is British English “mother”. A person may use this to talk about their maternal kin but is unlikely to use it to address them directly. Majstrík (2010) analysed the British National Corpus and found many uses of the “term” mother but only a small proportion, compared to say “mum”, were used for addressing. There is no statistical evidence but it may be inferred from a perusal of Majstrík’s study that many of these were not modern examples. This distinction is important on a theoretical basis as “mum” and “mother” are different terms used in different contexts. There is some description of the vocative in the literature which will now be discussed. The vocative can be described as a case of grammar. However, it is of particular usage in that it can exist outside the grammatical structure of the main clause. For example, in the sentence “Mum, can you pass me the sauce, please.”, the main clause is “can you pass me the sauce”, which is complete in English consisting of a subject, verb phrase and two objects. “Mum”, is a calling term and is referred to by “you” in the main clause but it is not a requirement to make the sentence grammatical. Contrast this with the nominative which only makes sense in the place of the sentential subject of a clause and is intrinsic to the grammar of the clause (Piper in Glušac & Čolič, 2017). The vocative may also be defined as its 1 *// denote phonemes. A list is given in Appendix 1 3 linguistic function; the vocative is used for direct naming and calling as opposed to the nominative which is used for narration or description (Clušac & Čolič, 2017).
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